The West Side of I-35 was white, the East Side was Black, south of the city was Mexican and white and north of the city was transplants of all races.
We apartment hopped from the ages of 4 to 8 and then from 8 to 12 we had a house in the Northern suburbs
From 5-12 I participated in all of my youth activities on the East side. Like a reverse busing.
I would go to school in these racist ass environments, often time the only Black kid in the room, definitely in my GT and honors classes
Take the bus home, wait for my dad to come pick me up, he'd drive me to the East side and I'd play basketball or football there.
In all of my years there, there was little intermingling between demographics. Even the North side Black folks never made their way to the East side.
I didn't have to have a talk about racism. I lived it.